El Monterey Chicken, Rice & Beans Burritos Review

We weren’t sure where this information came from, so we tracked the asterisk on the front of the package to a tiny little box on the back that attributes this information to Nielsen scan data across 26 weeks ending November 26, 2016. If we’re understanding this correctly, this means the tagline should actually be “America’s most scanned burrito during a 26-week period in 2016.”

So today we’re checking out the El Monterey Chicken Rice & Beans Burrito, which was apparently an oft-scanned burrito in 2016. And it’s actually a pretty decent one. No, this won’t stand up against delights such as Evol’s Sriracha Chicken Big Burrito or Sweet Earth’s Peruvian Burrito, but it makes a halfway decent snack when the hunger strikes.

As you can see in our image below, there’s actually a decent amount of chicken inside this burrito. Many burritos on the market really skimp out on the chicken portion, so we’re quite happy to see El Monterey buck the trend and toss in some decent-sized cubes of cooked chicken. And this chicken tastes — well, okay. It’s not the best chicken out there, but it’s got a decent amount of flavor to it. When asked if this is good chicken, we won’t jump out of our seats or holler at the moon; we can only nod our heads in a sort of noncommittal approval.

It’s the beans, however, that contribute the most to the flavor of this burrito. It’s a mash of what we guess are refried beans (the package simply says “beans,” as if to shrug off the whole thing nonchalantly), and it tastes quite alright. This is pretty much the standard flavor for a microwave burrito.

The rice portion is a little weak, though we don’t necessarily mind that. The package shows rice spilling out of the thing, and that’s quite an exaggeration. Compare that image with our photo above and you’ll see what we mean. No rice avalanche here. In fact, this rice barely makes a peep. If you’re hoping for a burrito that’s all riced up, you’ll probably want to go somewhere else.

Is this spicy? Nope. Not at all. Spice-ophobes can safely chomp these without complaining, while those looking for a mouth-burning treat aren’t going to find one here.

One burrito contains 230 calories (45 from fat), which isn’t all that bad if you only eat one. We think it takes two to make even a small meal, so keep that in mind if you’re counting calories.

The El Monterey Chicken, Rice & Beans Burritos won’t set the world on fire, but they taste halfway decent. We certainly won’t be running out to tell all our friends about how amazing this is, but we also didn’t mind munching these things for our review. And that ain’t too bad, now is it?

To learn more about the nutrition content or ingredients in these frozen burritos, check out our package scans below.